cd sunday: the postal service's give up

and so we reach the end.  way back in june i embarked on a quest to share with you my favorite twenty albums.  i hope you've enjoyed the journey as much as i have.  it was tough to select just twenty, and made me realize how diverse my collection is - and the way that my collection has changed over the years.

today's final album is by the postal service - a side project of ben gibbard, lead singer of the band death cab for cutie.  this album is quirky - part indie rock, part electronica, part ear candy pop.  some songs are familiar - you might recognize "such great heights" as the song was featured in us postal service commercials as part of a name copyright settlement, and was covered by the band iron and wine and featured in the indie film garden state.

but the album has even more than that.  some of it is melodic enough to be a lullaby (such as "homage" or "see the light"), while others are uptempo enough to be featured in a play-list for the gym workout.

i cannot remember who introduced me to this album.  it came out while i was in college but i didn't have it during my semester in south africa which occurred at the end of that year (i know this because my cd folder was stolen on that trip, containing hundreds of cds - many in my current collection of around 400 albums are actually burned copies because of this unfortunate incident, give up is not one of them, which means it was not on the trip).  it certainly wasn't very early.  in some kind of odd twist, it made me much more curious about death cab for cutie - i'm not sure how often a side project ends up making people interested in the main event, but that is what happened for me.

so why the photo of the capitol building?  well the opening track always makes me think of washington with the repetitive line from the chorus, "d.c. sleeps, alone tonight".

it is a brilliant album and i'm baffled as to why a follow-up never came forth.  maybe someday my fellow ben will get around to it.


and so, here is the final list.  my twenty favorite albums, in no particular order...

1. u2 - the joshua tree
2. dave matthews band - crash
3. cake - comfort eagle
4. blue rodeo - five days in july
5. the beach boys - pet sounds
6. coldplay - viva la vida
7. weezer - pinkerton
8. mates of state - re-arrange us
9. radiohead - ok computer 
10. nickel creek - this side
11. u2 - how to dismantle an atomic bomb 
12. the beatles - the white album 
13. sloan - one chord to another 
14. o.a.r. - risen
15. paul simon - graceland 
16. jack johnson - brushfire fairytales 
17. led zeppelin - iv
18. belle & sebastian - the life pursuit
19. sara watkins - sara watkins
20. the postal service - give up

cd saturday: sloan's one chord to another

when i was younger i traded a vinyl copy of this album for sloan's award winning one chord to another.  i thought it was a steal of a deal.  i ended up playing that album over and over and over again (and still do on occasion).

maybe it was the blue (my favorite color) tilted rendition of the band on the cover, or maybe it was the fact that they were canadian, but what i really liked most was the somewhat quirky nature of this group.  for starters, their songs sounded like they were pulling on musical influences from classic rock to jazz, from big band to grunge.  each of the four members of the band took turns taking the lead vocal for every new song, and they traded instruments with a flourish.

but i think it was the music that spoke to me loudest.  the album opens with the crashing "the good in everyone", a song with lyrics as punchy as the guitar-driven sound.  it features musically tongue-in-cheek songs like "g turns to d", and the laid back sounds of what may be their biggest single hit ever, "the good in everyone".

sometime after college i was visiting a friend in washington dc.  he mentioned that sloan (a band he knew i liked) were playing that night at a venue around the corner.  i couldn't believe it.

it was a surreal experience.  at the peak of their popularity, sloan was playing in some of canada's biggest venues.  however here we were in a tiny club in dc with about 50 people - many of whom were canadian ex-pats like myself.  they played all of my favorite songs, and performed with the same energy and enthusiasm that i fell in love with back in high school - yet, i couldn't help but feel a little saddened by the experience.  here was a wildly popular canadian band that barely made a dent in the lucrative american market.  in toronto that show would have sold out weeks in advance, but in dc their show was an afterthought.

regardless, i will remember that night with a smile on my face.  it was an experience that i'll never forget.

1. u2 - the joshua tree
2. dave matthews band - crash
3. cake - comfort eagle
4. blue rodeo - five days in july
5. the beach boys - pet sounds
6. coldplay - viva la vida
7. weezer - pinkerton
8. mates of state - re-arrange us
9. radiohead - ok computer 
10. nickel creek - this side
11. u2 - how to dismantle an atomic bomb 
12. the beatles - the white album

capitol dome

i don't consider myself to be a very patriotic person (at least not toward the usa), but it's hard not to be when you visit dc. for the first time ever i toured the capitol building and even sat in the gallery for a little while. it was a cool addition to my lobbying with bread for the world - a different way of visiting the capital.

i'm back in pasadena now. a great trip, but it's good to be home. i've posted some photos of my trip here if you want to see a few shots from my week.

checking in from washington dc

hey there faithful blog readers. just a quick post from my trip to the nation's capital. i'm here for a bread for the world conference (you should check them out, they do amazing stuff), and have been living at the lovely catholic university of america campus. this building is the impressive basilica of the national shrine of the immaculate conception - quite a mouthful, i know.

night life

friday neon (sort of?) in the dc suberbs.